Mednafen PSX cannot find my memory cards in 1.4.1

RetroArch Windows devices
#1

As of the newest version of RetroArch, Mednafen PSX cannot find any of my old memory card files anymore.

It would appear that, previously, for some reason, RetroArch would store memory card files in the system folder with all of the BIOS files, and they’d look like this:

Spyro the Dragon (USA).c23d9f30b1fccb15c38d50f3d2dc1f62.0.mcr

As of the newest version of RetroArch/Medafen PSX (1.4.1), RetroArch is now looking for the memory card files in the same folder as all of the other game SRAM. Furthermore, the files it generates are completely different. Now, the save files look like this:

Spyro the Dragon (USA).0.mcr Spyro the Dragon (USA).srm

I figured maybe I could just move all my files manually and rename them, but no matter what I do, Mednafen would rather start a new file and ignore the ones I currently have. This is obviously quite distressing, because it means something like ten games have had all of their progress dunked in the garbage.

Am I doing something wrong or just out of luck? I really hate it when stuff like this changes so drastically.

#2

i cannot remember retroarch or even older psx core save in this format. this is a standalone mednafen filename save format.

as with the folders, you probably have the saves folder set at a different one or not at all(which would default to save in rom folder instead. a new install of retroarch.7z(if you used this fill version brom buildbot) also have an included retroarch.cfg so it probably had overwritten yours. i have been using compiled version of retroarch so im not sure what is included now with the build-bot releases.

#3

So I figured it out, and this is kind of stupid.

So to be more specific, RetroArch (and I presume Mednafen) used to ACTUALLY store memory cards like

Spyro the Dragon (USA).c23d9f30b1fccb15c38d50f3d2dc1f62.0.mcr Spyro the Dragon (USA).c23d9f30b1fccb15c38d50f3d2dc1f62.1.mcr

Which is now

Spyro the Dragon (USA).srm Spyro the Dragon (USA).1.mcr

So after migrating all the files to the proper folder, it was just a case of renaming “Spyro the Dragon (USA).c23d9f30b1fccb15c38d50f3d2dc1f62.0.mcr” to “Spyro the Dragon (USA).srm” and “Spyro the Dragon (USA).c23d9f30b1fccb15c38d50f3d2dc1f62.1.mcr” to “Spyro the Dragon (USA).1.mcr”

My problem was, I figured it was looking for Spyro the Dragon (USA).0.mcr and Spyro the Dragon (USA).1.mcr. I didn’t know the SRM file played any role.

Once I did that, the memory card showed up in RetroArch. Now dig through and do that for 10-15 other games, I guess…

What a dumb change.

#4

Now this core acts like the rest of the cores, which is beneficial long-term. I sympathize that you were invested in the old behavior but if it were that big of a deal, you could have continued using the old core. Updating == changes

#5

No, I get that under the hood this is probably a benefit in making sure everything makes sense, but migrating wasn’t exactly a widely-surfaced or friendly process and literally everything in modern computing tells you that keeping all software up to date is how the world works.

I essentially felt like I was bashing rocks together and got lucky when it suddenly worked.